Ahsoka Tano: Guardian of the Galaxy
by Sparks' Stories
Summary: Broken and abandoned by the Order she once revered, Ahsoka Tano roams the depths of space and the recesses of her heart for a new purpose to give her life meaning. It is then, during an unforeseen attack as she prepares to return to her home planet Shili, that destiny shows its hand and a new adventure in a galaxy of endless possibilities begins.
1. Prologue - The Fire in I

**Ahsoka Tano**

**Guardian of the Galaxy**

**Prologue**

**The Fire in I**

* * *

The warm scent of crushed pine and a slow burning candle fills the air around me. My nostrils flair up against the strong smell, but adjust quickly to its assault in a moment of acceptance the likes of which I begin to wish I could know underneath the veil of confusion and self-doubt that hangs over my conscience like a weight I know I cannot bare to carry for much longer.

I can feel my heart beating hard and relentlessly against my heaving chest. My mind throbs too, but all of a sudden the calming nature of the incense works its magic upon me as my breathing steadies and my eyes open to the scene before them, the source of the pain.

The Jedi Council is scattered, only a few remain in the Temple to greet me as the meeting begins and all novelties are tossed aside for the blunt end of a corrupt and blood stained blade. I see friends first, allies second and masters third, yet suddenly they all seem the same to me as they do to the legions who call them their protectors. If only they knew, the Jedi couldn't even protect themselves.

A wave of bitterness washes over me, but I try to ignore it. I've made my decision, but there's a fear that lingers upon my heart, screaming for me to listen to them before making up my mind to an end, an end I don't know nor one I want to think too much about.

Two apologies come, one personal, the other on behalf of the group and suddenly I feel a sting of hope pierce through my resolve. Hope. Such a fragile thing is hope. I wonder if the word, the concept, even holds the same meaning for me after what I have been through. There was once a time when hope and belief was all I needed to cling to in order to get passed the dark times, but now both had faded, and been replaced with a shroud of shadow that I accept I may never be able to lift.

I forget sometimes that I am still so young, so inexperienced in and of how the universe truly works as it turns and grows with each passing second. For sixteen years I have clung to little else than a single purpose, to grow and learn and find my place in a galaxy of uncountable stars. For fourteen of those, I have been a Jedi, sworn to protect the innocent from the ravages of the dark side and to better myself in the ways of the Force until the day came when I would shed my Padawan braid one last time and be given the title I once craved to achieve in becoming a Jedi Knight.

Ah, but isn't hope such a small and treacherous thing? So easily shattered in the space of mere moments by voices that do not ask for forgiveness when they should, but instead fight for acceptance. The blind leading the blind.

One speaks of Knighthood as if it were so easy a path to start down. Another speaks of a great trial, organised by the entity we follow and grasp onto so tightly that it encompasses are entire existence and shapes us into what we are, what we will become.

Oh but I have seen the Force work, I have seen it manifested in pure physical form, light, dark and neutral. My trial ended long ago inside the monolith of Mortis at the hands of The Ones and began anew under the gaze of a greater power than the Jedi could understand or even comprehend.

In my dreams, my nightmares, I have stepped across the line between light and dark many times since then. I have seen the blackness of hate, felt the ecstasy of passion and the joys of unbroken chains. I don't speak of it, but I remember, faintly, what it was like to be free of one set of shackles only to be bind by another.

I cross my arms in a signal of annoyance, but I doubt they see it as such. My eyes move back to Anakin, my brother, my friend, my master. In his eyes I see the same fear that would take the heart of me, yet in that fear there is hope, shining bright through the crevices that crack and widen as his gaze locks with mine for but a moment of clarity.

His vision is awake, open to the world and its every movement. He sees things that many Jedi do not, feels things their code would stand against and speaks of things that would mean so little to the few, yet so much to the masses.

I can't help but smile up at him; he's always had that effect on me, ever since he turned to me on that day on Christophsis and promised to make their pairing as Master and Padawan work until the end. I loved him, not in the romantic way forbidden by the Order, but as a daughter loves a father. I respected him, would follow him into any battle without question, enjoy each victory with laughs and shed equal tears in defeat.

My heart breaks for him. I know his pain as he now knows my own and I know how powerless we both are to break through the walls that surround our ironclad wills in order to heal the wounds of a thousand battles and the unfathomable loss that came with them.

We are machines of war, better than droids only because we can think as individuals. We know little else, have lived little else, and slowly it has eaten way at us both, stripped us of our true selves and left us as husks without purpose.

I am but a child, deformed by an ideal handed down to me by others who have themselves lost their way. I know what I must do, I know how it will hurt those I love and care about by doing it, but I know that I have no other choice. I have made my decision.

"They're asking you back, Ahsoka… I'm asking you back…"

The tears form in the corners of my already stinging eyes as Anakin speaks. His words acting like daggers being driven slowly into my aching heart as I push the last inklings of doubt away and stare at his extended gloved right hand.

My Padawan braid sits in his palm and extends outwards as the sting of silka beads falls over the edges of the mechanical hand like a pair of waterfalls atop a flat plateau. Seeing the small, yet significant piece of jewellery again makes me shiver, makes me reconsider but for a moment, until I take his hand in both of mine, and close his fingers in on what I intend to be my final gift to him before I break his heart in two to match my own.

"I'm sorry master… but I'm not coming back…"

The dim light within the Council Chamber falls into a darker hue of orange as the words leave my dried, grey lips. The colours of the setting sun are almost appropriate, setting the scene for an ending, though I don't yet know if my life from this point will allow for a new beginning.

I turn on my heels and flee with a stiff walk before I can think of something more to say. The door slides shut behind me, shutting them off, shutting _him _off. I know he will follow me, but I don't want to face him again, to face the inevitability of being faced with another choice which would shape the rest of my life in a way I cannot stand to even contemplate.

My pace quickens as I make my way through the hallowed halls of the Jedi Temple, my home no longer. Knights, Masters and Padawans pass me by without notice, though the odd one throws a look my way as if to put a condemnation on my life for causing them so much trouble.

Innocence is not something easily earned, even if in this case I am entitled to it without having to explain myself to anyone. I did send the Jedi and Republic on a chase, I did make trouble for them and for myself, but I think, no, I know that I don't deserve their stares, not when they know nothing of my plight.

My head drops to the floor and each step I take is marked with a new tear as I try and fail to hold back my grief. I know the giant doors that lead outside are near, I know I will be free soon, but what is freedom for me now? I shudder to think about it, yet find myself all too eager to learn if it means I don't have to stand underneath the eyes of the Order for one second longer.

Underneath the arch-like doors, through the threshold I must never cross again if I want to hold a hope of keeping myself together in order to build a life for myself outside of what I know. The cool air of the midsummers evening isn't all that unpleasant, but still I shiver. My lekku twitch with the cold, my montrals ring with the sound of footsteps not of my own creation and suddenly I feel his presence, his anger and his pain, as they fall upon down me like a waterfall on an over eroded stone not long for this world.

"Ahsoka, wait!" He screams after me, an obvious quiver in his usually strong tone, "Ahsoka, I need to talk to you…"

I come to a slow halt just underneath the gargantuan overhanging slab that sits above us, the warm rays of the sun gently gliding over my skin and staving off the cold for but a moment as I turn to him and send my gaze back down to the hard ground. He deserves to know why, of all people he deserves it the most, but I fear for his reaction, I fear for his hate.

Anakin comes to a stop too, within reach of an outstretched hand. He takes a breath and so do I, but unlike his my intake of air is shaky, broken and lacking in the strength needed to hold back the obvious sorrow that will soon fill the air with the sound of my voice.

"…Why are you doing this?"

His question is a sharps pear to the centre of my heart. Do I know? Do I truly know what I'm doing? I tell myself that it's their fault, that the Council are the ones forcing me to do this. They didn't believe in me like he did, like he still does. They turned their backs on me in an instant and tried to pin the blame on the all-knowing, ever living Force.

Master Windu's words ring out in my mind in a second before disappearing into the void that's left in the wake of my decimated thoughts. No _"Great Trial" _would ever come from the entity that binds all life together; no test so harsh as to break one person's spirit would ever come from the Force. If I were to be knighted, it would be an injustice, both against myself and the Order I once loved and respected more than anything else in this universe. Its teachings now lay wasted at my feet. I had my answer, but nothing had changed.

"The Council didn't trust me…" My voice is stronger than I thought it would be, and I embrace it, I must, if only to show that my resolve is stronger than theirs, that I know I believe each word I say and in turn, so too will he. "…So how can I trust myself?"

If my own question was to hang in the air, it would be for naught but a moment in time. His voice rises. A dangerous mixture of anger, fear and despair filling his tone as he tries to lock his cold blue eyes with my own.

"What about me? I believed in you! I stood by you!"

It's true. He did. But the Order is more than just one. If I stay, I will hold the trust of one, two, maybe three or four people who would actually care about my decision, about who I am. The rest would cast their eyes on me every day like they had just minutes before. Judging me unjustly, trapping me within the web of lies spun by the Council and Republic. He stood by me, like I've stood by him countless times before, but now I stand alone as an exile without a fate, or the sight to see what lies ahead of me.

"I know you believe in me, Anakin… and I'm grateful for that…" I let my mind lead my words instead of my heart, knowing if I were to allow my emotions release they would overwhelm me, or worse still, they would overwhelm him. "…But this isn't about you. I can't stay here any longer. Not now…"

"The Jedi Order is your life! You can't just throw it away like this… Ahsoka, you're making a mistake…"

"Maybe. But I have to sort this out on my own. Without the Council… and without you…"

I curse myself for sounding so lifeless, so unlike myself. All I want to do is throw my arms around him and give my master to goodbye he deserves, but instead I turn my back, fixing my eyes on a single horizon etched somewhere in the blank stone floor we stand on. The ground is almost matching my future, empty and unknown.

"I understand. More than you realise… I understand wanting to walk away from the Order…"

A scream gets caught up in my throat before it can be released to the world. His words, his tone, his feel within the Force all surround and stab at me with heated blades hotter than a lightsaber as the truth I've known for longer than I can recall surfaces in a flash of black sorrow.

I know from all of it that his heart is as broken as mine, that his mind is as lost as mine and that together we are one in the same, Master and Apprentice joined forever through a bond I fear may never break. Deep down I want to hold on to that link forever, but my intention from the moment I closed his hand around my braid had been to cut it off just as those symbolic beads had been cut away from me. The scream tries to escape again, but as I open my mouth only two words come forth from the darkness. I don't know them until they are said, but their significance will leave two once heavy weights lightened from two sets of individual shoulders. He must know that…

"…I know."

I don't wait for him to speak again. My mind says "run" while my heat screams "walk," and combined they lead me forward steadily as the tears finally are allowed to fall out of sight of the one person other than myself whom they may have any effect on.

_"Don't turn back…" I whisper though the coming storm of sobs, tears and regretful curses, "Run, Ahsoka… don't turn back… run!"_

* * *

Time has all but lost all meaning to me in the last four days; at least I think it's been four days. I arrived at the gates of the Republic shipping yards just as the sun disappeared behind the built up Coruscant horizon, facing a group of Clone Troopers garbed in the white and red armour of the Capital's Guard.

It took more energy and willpower than I anticipated to get past those guards. In my haste I'd almost forgotten it had been three days already since I last had a real chance to lay down and rest and now, travelling through the vast emptiness of space at the speed of light, all of that fatigue had finally caught up with me.

The ship I had managed to pull out of the massive scrap heaps in the furthest borders of the yards took up most of my time and effort to restore to working order, and even then I knew it would be a risk to fly it. The ancient Raven PT-7 Jedi Starfighter was in decent shape, but it's hyper-drive had long since run its course in life, so finding one which fit into the craft's engine bay and worked was what led to another handful of long and sleepless nights.

_So far, so good, _I think to myself as my eyes flutter open and struggle to adjust to the bright, swirling blues and whites which make up the vortex of hyperspace. A quick glance at the chrono on the ships navicomputer tells me it's been two hours since the jump from Coruscant, two hours of sleep before I had to wake in order to come out at the crossroads between hyper-lanes and choose where to go next.

Shili was the first planet to come to the forefront of my mind. My home planet would be the best place to make a fresh start to my life, a peaceful new beginning among people of my own kind on a world I'm certain I don't know half as well as I should, but am all too eager to learn more about.

Outside of that one hope, there are few places in the galaxy I could even try to consider running to without seeds doubt creeping their way into and planting themselves within my thoughts. Onderon, Mandalore, Kashyyyk… I would be welcome on any of them by old friends or allies, but so too would the war and the fires I no longer have any desire to see spread further ever again.

A loud chime from my ships navicomputer startles me back to reality. The lack of an astromech from the Old Republic, as is the ships origin, means I have had to fly the craft manually for most the journey, say for an autopilot function which I have only managed to make available while travelling through hyperspace.

With a breath and rub of my sleepy eyes, I take a hold of the crafts controls with my left hand and begin to punch in commands to the navi in preparation for the upcoming drop into the star lined abyss.

The few seconds that pass by between the exit from hyperspace and the arrival of the fleet ahead of me seems like a lifetime of the universe. I half want to rub my eyes again in disbelief at what I'm seeing, while also holding back the urge to curse both myself and my ever fleeting luck for encountering the last force I would ever want to be faced with alone.

Five massive Munificent-class warships lead by a single Providence-class destroyer baring the marks of the Separatist Alliance exited hyperspace moments after my own chip had come to a halt and almost immediately began hailing me with an order to identify or be fired on.

My eyes widened as a multitude of heavy ion cannons came to point directly at my cockpit and prime to fire at will. The lead cruiser was the only exception to that, though as it was the only one still inching forward, I guessed it would be as quick to turn its own weapons on me if I did not answer the open channel call they had been using to try and open with me from the moment we had laid eyes upon each other.

A thousand different thoughts, scenarios and outcomes raced through my mind in an instant of fear as I considered each and every option that presented itself and faded almost as quickly as I mentally reached out to grab hold of it.

To make the jump to hyperspace again would be suicide, as the Confederate ships would be scanning my craft at all times to make sure I wasn't able to do anything to oppose them. To fight would yield the same result, but what other choice did I have now? Once I responded to their call, which I would have to no matter what was going to happen, they would know me from a file, a picture or even from memory and destroy me without so much as a thought or a blink.

"Unidentified ship, open your communications to us immediately or be annihilated"

The broken, mechanical voice rang through from the navicomputer like a series of sharp stabs to my sound sensitive montrals. My eyes slam shut and I take a breath before letting it out again as a heavy and long sigh of regret.

"Grievous…"

I push the accept option for the hail on my screen to reveal the ugly white face of the feared and dreaded commander of the separatist droid army. His dark yellow eyes focus on my face for but a moment before he breaks into a sickening laugh which is followed by a series of coughs and curses veil enough to only suit someone… something as evil as he is.

"Jedi filth, it is not wise for one such as you to venture so far away from your precious protected space in such a pitiful excuse for a starfighter."

His accent cuts though me and sends a shiver down my spine. The added buzz from the old navicomputer makes the disgusting cyborg look even more threatening and horribly ugly than usual, but even at that I try to hold my tongue for fear of provoking him. I need time to think, to find a way out, I need to keep him talking for as long as I can, I need to concentrate.

"I'm not a Jedi anymore… I'm only passing through; your business is none of mine… I don't want trouble…"

Grievous laughs again, this time with pure joyful disgust at what he's hearing and suddenly it's not my to tongue I'm trying to hold back, but a small smirk of confidence. Half droid or not, the general will always be a clanker to me, even if he is a more arrogant one. If past encounters are anything to go by, he'll savour every second of pre-destruction bliss before unleashing his fury on me and by then I want to be ready to dodge the mindless attack, look for the opening I pray will open for me and make the second jump before the rust bucket can so much as blink his ruined eyes.

"Only the apprentice of Skywalker would be so bold as to insult me. You are no coward, Tano. I have faced you before and both times your lightsaber has escaped the pull of my ever-growing collection."

"My lightsaber was destroyed, Grievous. Don't you watch the holonet? I left the Jedi Order four days ago… I'm not your enemy or your friend… I just want to find a new home and leave the war behind me."

I try to sound desperate, going so far as to force a tear from the many I've been holding back since reaching the end of the steps at the base of the Jedi Temple. I know he won't buy it, not even for a second, but as I search the space in front of me a number of options make themselves available and for once, a feeling of control I haven't felt since I leapt off my fighter to save Anakin on Cato Neimoidia just a week ago.

"Your lies mean little to me, youngling. You are alone, vulnerable and weak without your Republic fleet. I do not know why you are here and I do not care. I will kill you and deliver the remains of your brunt out ship and body to the feet of you master before allowing him to join you in the void! Commander, deploy a swarm of fighters and fire ion cannons when ready. Wipe this pathetic Jedi from the face of the galaxy!"

Alarms and warning overtake my cockpit as and navicomputer as a squadron of droid fighters drop from the hanger of the flagship and begin towards my position at speed. The red charge within the many cannons catch my eye too, though before I can even think of dodging them I take the controls of my ship in both hands, push them forward with enough force to almost snap the old steel in two and send myself into a steep dive, preparing to punch in the coordinates to the hyperspace route before me as I avoid an initial barrage of blaster fire.

Fighting back feelings of panic and the urge to pull back, I send my fighter into a spin before quickly levelling out and pushing the thrusters forward as hard as I can in order to force the ship forward until I'm underneath the enemy fleet, who struggle to move their cannons downwards fast enough before I'm clear of the flagship, nearing the freedom of open space and readying both myself and my craft for the next jump.

Time slows down to almost as halt, but my hands are moving faster than I can blink in order to enter the coordinates that will bring me to my home world. A smile creeps across my lips, but it quickly fades as a realisation enters my thoughts and my hands return to sit atop the idle controls.

If I jump to Shili, they'll know… If I go home, they'll follow. The Separatists will track and find me on Shili, they'll bring a fleet ten times the size of my attackers and destroy whatever peace remains for me to hold on to before chocking my people in the smoke of the fires of war, while I watch helplessly in the grasp of Grievous, as he laughs and tortures me before the end.

Panic returns to my thoughts, to me entire body and being. I can't go to Shili anymore; I can't go anywhere that they can and will threaten to use or destroy. I need to turn back, back to Coruscant until I can try again, I need to run, but I don't get the chance.

My ship shakes and roars under the impact of baster fire from behind. Alarms ring out again, but this time they are signalling damage, loss of stability and imminent departure.

Another blast from behind sends me flying face first into the navicomputer, confirming the jump to hyperspace, but not to Shili, not to anywhere. I pull myself back from the controls and look at the cracked screen for some sort of guidance as to where I am about to go, but all I see is red, thick blood from the gash that's opened up on my forehead as I begin to fall drowsy and the white swirling light of hyperspace begins to appear around me.

Everything after that comes in flashes of light, heat and pain. I can barely hear the alarms anymore, but I know they're still there, urging me to undertake an order that may no longer be possible with the ship in its current state.

More out of instinct and a deep lying need than anything else, I reach forward with a shaky hand and open the small compartment underneath my controls. Inside is my lightsaber, or what's left of it and even if I'm going to die here and now, I need to have it and the kyber crystal inside with me, to feel like I'm whole at the moment the Force takes me, _this weapon is your life…_

Another flash, another roar and another shudder rolls over the ship as white gives way to black, yellow, red and green. My eyes can barely focus on what's happening outside, but I see what I know to be water, seas, islands, continents, grassy hills and a ruined city.

My body acts on its own, survival driving my hands to the sides of my cockpit as I take a firm hold of the emergency latches for the hatch and release them to send the combination of transparisteel and glass into the sky behind me as I undo the straps of my seat and stand into the force of the howling wind.

I blink, but my eyes don't clear. I breathe, but the air escapes my lungs faster than it can enter. I scream, but the sound is lost to the sound of the whaling sky as it rushes past me.

My mind opens up to the Force, clutching at fond memories to replace the feeling of sorrow I feel for what's happened to me and so many others in my young life. I've known pain, I've made pain, death, suffering and in turn I too have suffered the scars which will stay with me until my dying breath.

I try not to dwell on it any longer; I try to focus on the light, on the faces of friends and family, of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Master Plo, Yoda, Shaak Ti and so many others. They give me the strength to do what must be done; they urge me forward to live and to survive.

I don't know if that will happen, I don't know what, if anything will happen, but I need to make sure I'm alive to see it as I know the Force wills it. I will live, I will find my place, I will be reborn and I will not give up…

"_Don't turn back… Jump, Ahsoka… Don't turn back… jump!"_

* * *

**Disclaimer**: Disney, Marvel and Lucasfilm Limited own all Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy characters and concepts. I do not own the rights to any of the characters, locations or anything to do with either franchise. Any Original Characters and/or locations however are my own.

**Author's Notes**: Thanks for reading guys!

This story came about from a challenge posted by a fellow author who approached me to turn their idea into a reality and together we've come up with a tale I hope you all enjoy to read as much as I hope to enjoy writing.

This Prologue is more of a re-telling of Ahsoka's last moments in the Jedi Order followed by the events which will bring her to the Marvel universe in an explosive exit from the Galaxy far, far away.

Again, I hope you all enjoyed this opening to the story and please, feel free to leave your thoughts in the form of a review. But yeah, that's about it from me. Thank you all once again for reading and I will catch you guys next time. Cheers!


	2. Eyes Open, Walk with the Shadows

**Ahsoka Tano**

**Guardian of the Galaxy**

**Chapter 1**

**Eyes Open, Walk with the Shadows**

* * *

The heavy smell of socked ash in the air was enough to make me gag. Two months living on the ruined surface of Krylor had not done much to help me get used to the stench that always filled my small home with an almost toxic cloud, though I tried my best to ignore it as always, while hoping I would someday be one of those responsible for making sure it would never haunt this planet again.

Outside, the sky was now clear and brightening with the rising of the morning sun as a new day dawned. The illuminating rays fell downwards and touched the scared surface below with gentle warmth, though I, like many of the people who called these lands home, knew that light would never be enough to erase and repair the damage that had been done.

It had been such a short time, but even still my mind continued to recall flashes of memory from that horrible night when my ship crashed hard into ground. If I had waited even an instant longer, I would have shared the same fate as my craft, ending in a pile of broken, crushed and burning debris somewhere out in the wilderness where no one would dare try to intervene or help.

I have been lucky, the fall was in itself just a blur of recollection in the back of my mind, but what still remained from that was the pain I had felt the moment I hit the ground. One broken arm, a few cracked ribs and a bruise on my spine the size of an apple, or so the doctors had said. They recalled pulling me onto a makeshift stretcher and taking me in for immediate surgery to stop the bleeding both outside and in. They said I had died at one point, been lost to the unknown depths of the afterlife before somehow pulling myself back. A miracle, but I wondered if such things would be so kind as to grace me with their time.

When I woke up four days later, I was alone inside the ruins of what used to be a hospital. The first thing that had stuck me was the cold that waved in from the glassless windows and the sting that had shot up my left arm when I tried to clutch at the thin blanket and pull it closer to my body in a failed effort to stay warm in the blistering chill.

I didn't call for help, nor did I want it. It became clear to me from the instant I had woken up that something very dark had occurred to make the building I was in fall apart like it was. That same strong stench of ash had haunted me then and hadn't stopped since, but as time went by, living with it became easier than trying to get used to the burning that overcame my nostrils and throat.

Laying there in cold, the strong damp clinging to my exposed, blanket covered body made me forget I was on a planet I did not know. Fear had been the only emotion I'd felt in those long hours , fear of being alone, fear of dying alone and fear of the unknown which I had found myself stuck in the middle of without any means to escape. That's when they came to see me.

A small crowd of seven or more Krylorian's filed into the room slowly as my eyes blinked frantically and moved to look each one of them over as an inborn precaution to seek out and avoid danger. Only two of them had been doctors, the same two that immediately came to a stop either side of me and ran small scanners over my body before covering me again with the blanket they had so quickly thrown off to initiate their examination.

The combination of an aching head I had just then noticed and the speed at which the red-skinned people were moving kept my pleading voice low and soft as I tried to ask them simply if they spoke basic. None of them had so much as spoken a word, they didn't even seem to see how scared I was at first, but that didn't last long, much to my undying gratitude and relief.

Aryn had been the first to speak up and order the medics to stop and give me a moment to catch my breath. She had exuded the air of a true leader from the moment I locked my eyes with hers, though in them I seen a gentleness, a need to help those that needed it, both traits I would come to learn and appreciate a lot more in the coming days.

"Get her some water, extra blankets and close up those windows!" the tall woman shouted her orders loud enough for all to hear before turning to the two men to her right, "Bring a heater and a generator, I want power back in this wing five minutes ago!"

From the moment we first spoke, I knew Aryn and I would get along like a star-ship on fire. She was the first person into my room each morning for the two weeks I stayed in the hospital and the last one to leave before I went to sleep the following night.

We would speak for hours on end, me explaining who and what I was, where I'd came from and how lost I felt in a galaxy I didn't know. Aryn would go on to do the same in introducing me to Krylor and the people that lived here, but most of all, she was there to offer a comforting hand each time emotion got the better of me. All the while she would tell me stories about both herself and her planet, its history and what she and her group were doing to help return Krylor to what it used to be.

I never mentioned the Jedi, at least not when speaking about myself. I realised quickly that no such Order existed in the minds of the Krylorians or anyone else, nor did any knowledge of the Force. At first I had been a little shocked, but that feeling quickly faded away the more I learned about this new place and all that had happened in the months, years, decades and centuries before my arrival.

Aryn spoke of a galaxy wide war between a people known as the Kree and the Empire headed by the Nova Corps on the planet Xandar. The former had only recently bombed Krylor's surface, robbing so many people of their lives with death, fire and destruction. The planet had been trying to rebuild itself ever since and though Nova had supplied an amount of aid to help with that, there was simply not enough to go around and famine was quickly becoming a threat both Aryn and her people were trying desperately to hold at bay, if not prevent fully if they could help it.

The higher class people who had become victims of Krylor's need called them thieves and criminals. Nova themselves had put out multiple arrest warrants on leaders that did not exist within their knowledge due to the use of stealth and deception which the group had employed to perfect effect to hide their race, identity and point of origin. They had saved many with their efforts, but it was still not enough to help the rest of the planet where more and more survivors continued to reveal themselves in frightening numbers.

Aryn revealed her determination to recruit more to her group's efforts, to eventually reveal herself as a representative of her people and show those who neglected them that Krylor would not stand by and fall without a fight. Her admission had awoken something in me which I feared was long dead, a drive to match that of the Krylorian's own burned in me, along with the need to repay the debts I personally placed upon myself for the care I had received.

I swore that day that from the moment I was able to stand on my own two legs without pain, without doubt, that I would join Aryn and repay her kindness as well as that of her people's, not just because of that, but because their cause matched that of my own as a keeper of the peace and a defender of the defenceless. I may not be a Jedi anymore, I may never fill the void that has grown in my heart since I closed my Padawan braid around my master's hand, but I would find a purpose to cloud over the hurt, to hold it at bay, until I found my true place here, in a galaxy I would now have no choice but to call home.

Adapting was probably the easiest part of the job. Using what I learned as a Jedi, force enhanced movement, martial arts and general swordplay earned me a bit of a reputation in a short amount of time, but that never proved to be a bad thing in the company we kept. The people I met encouraged me rather than try to put me down for the sake of improvement. They took me in as I was; an exile lost in a faraway galaxy and accepted me without question as an ally and a friend.

Aryn had of course played a part in that too, though she tried not to make it too obvious when she asked one of her seconds in command to help me out or show me what to do when it came to breaking into safes, or cracking the code of a locked door before sneaking in and snatching whatever I could without anyone ever noticing or sensing my presence.

Truthfully, there was always a level of shame whenever a job was carried out successfully. No one here ever wanted to resort to stealing as a way to survive, but there were more reasons for doing it than there were those against and we were constantly reminded of that as a way to keep moral up.

"Eyes open, walk with the shadows…"

I repeated our would-be mantra over and over again before I went to sleep at night as everyone else would. It wasn't as meaningful as the Jedi code, but it kept all of us cantered and ready for whatever could and would happen if or when things went wrong. Most of the time nothing ever did, but it was still nice to have something to cling to and remember, it gave us strength in a way, as well as focus and we stuck by that from the beginning of each mission to the end. Why not? Every good thief needs something to live by after all.

A shiver runs up my recently healed spine as each memory runs a course through my head. It still seems hard to believe that only two months have passed. Two months, and I still carry so many signs of both the crash and life in general since my arrival on Krylor.

Running a hand along the bandages on my arm, I stand from the sitting position I'd held on my bedding and reach out with the Force to touch any and all life around me in what has become a habit of scanning for danger. My small hut sits barely ten clicks east of the nearest town, next to a small lake on a grassy plain that reminds me so much of my home world, Shili.

It wasn't my first choice. As a Togruta, it's hard to keep at bay my inborn need to be among others. Loneliness never became a problem when I was a Jedi, there were always other members of the Order or Clone Troopers around for me to talk to and break my boredom, but here, unless I made the short walk into town, I was mostly on my own, living in silence and isolation.

I allow a short sigh to escape my lips before checking the chrono next to my bed. Just under an hour until the sun hits its height and once again I curse myself for not being able to get a full night's sleep. The strips of cloth that cover most of my chest threaten to slip down and off as I stretch out my arms and exhale a large breath, trying to centre myself after just four hours of rest and settle the lingering shakes that come with the unwanted fatigue.

The sun had just about peaked it's warm gaze over the nearby green hills and snow-capped mountains before I left the only slightly warmer confines of my hut and began the morning rituals I had been practicing with vigour since my wounds had closed enough for me to avoid worrying about them re-opening should I push myself to limits I didn't care to acknowledge as existing.

The routine had been the norm as a Jedi. Like all in the Order, I would rise at dawn with the sun, but unlike the many, I would join but a few in the Temple's gardens to train and exercise before a day of planning meetings and mission de-briefings drew out the hours and bored me enough to send me to bed early if they didn't end with the preparation and flight to another battlefield somewhere outside of the comfort of the core worlds.

While on Krylor, the problem with training so early in the morning lay almost solely on a broken sleeping pattern and a host of lingering injuries that seemed to never cease their attacks on each and every one of my pain centres. The lack of a working lightsaber, the remains of which remained in a small satchel that held all of my valuables, meant swordplay was also something I had had to neglect, at least until Aryn had provided me with a blade of steel, a short sword, which had become the new extension of my arm as I continued to search for a way to fix my old weapon which had been half snapped, half melted by the all too horribly convenient pool of acid and fuel I had found it laying in while searching the Coruscant Underworld for the last item I had left to my name.

The rather simple attire I wore for training could have been mistaken for that of a Sedrian warrior monk's if seen back in my home galaxy, made up of the cloth-strip wrapping around my chest and upper midriff, a maroon skirt which almost matched my battledress and the grey, diamond cut leggings capped off with my usual pair of almost knee-high boots. It was functional and easy to move in, all features I had come to appreciate as my grip and arm muscles continued to adapt the added weight of a non-energy blade.

My old outfit had sustained only a small amount of damage from the crash and jump which had led to my training becoming so much less than it used to be, but still needed some slight repairs to make it wearable again. In truth, it almost looked brand new after the local Krylorian tailors had finished with it and returned it to me at the moment I was discharged from the hospital, but I'd still made an effort to add some modifications to suit my new line of work, including attachable silver-steel armour for my boots and right shoulder, a custom helmet which was more to hide my face and origin with deception but served a purpose with its functioning night vision, and finally, the long strapped dark grey satchel which I kept with me at all times so as to avoid losing what was hidden inside.

Taking the grip of my short sword into hand and balancing the sharp and unforgiving blade in front of me, I move to stretch and twist the muscles of my arms to once more get used to the added weight of the heavy steel which was a far cry harder to wield than the weightless energy of a lightsaber.

Training over the period of a month and using the weapon on rare occasions while out on the field had made handling the hefty blade easier, but I was still struggling to adapt to using it in the same way I'd been able to use my saber to the greatest effect.

Form V and the reverse Shien style of grip I'd employed since I was still a youngling initiate had once been like an added sense to me, but employing it with this new sword had also made things difficult and sometimes almost lethally messy when I'd come close to severing a finger, an arm or even a lekku tail while trying to get used to the weapons weight, but I had learned my lesson since those occasions and now tried to keep things simple and effective, at least until practice, patience and time made way for a better understanding as to how to handle the sword as best I could.

A few swift swings, stabs and Force-augmented leaps began my almost dance-like training as I pictured a host of mentally conjured enemies to engage with. My voice gave way for a string of yells, grunts and curses as I felled my invisible attackers one by one with lightning fast manoeuvres, combining my sword with non-existent plants of my boot to equally ghosted chests.

In my mind's eye, the extended blade in my hand burned and began to morph into a lightsaber as I twisted it in my grip mid-stab and reversed the grip to face a newly summoned group of adversaries which took the form of masked and shrouded dark side warriors wielding their own fiery crimson weapons.

Two of them fall to me quickly and disappeared back into the ground from whence they came. A third tried to strike at my legs before I leapt upwards to avoid the blow, spun in mid-air and removed the assailants head with one swift slice before only one more figure remained standing before me in a battle ready stance.

A smirk crosses my lips as I charge at the phantom and fane a low swing of my blade before kicking the shrouded man in the gut and knocking both the wind out of his lungs and the weapon out of his hand. As he falls to his back I step forward once again, bringing the tip of my own blade down to hover over the skin of an exposed neck as the figure stared back at me with an unflinching gaze.

"I win again, it seems…"

The words leave my mouth dryly at the moment the ghostly figure of my own creation removed its mask and revealed its face to be that of Count Dooku, before following in the same fate as his fellow shadows and disappearing into the dirt beneath my boots with a cloud of black mist, which was also quick to fade.

It would have been normal to revel in the victory if the enemy had not been that of mere images brought to life by thought and a trick of own sight. Such things had become hollow and meaningless with each occasion I beat one of the many spectres of evil from my past, though that had not meant it didn't serve to encourage me enough to keep improving as my training ritual continued to move ever closer to the normality I had enjoyed at the Jedi Temple.

A sigh leaves the slight opening of my mouth, my breath slowing down with the returning fatigue of the illusion of battle and the reminder that my body still lacked enough rest to function at peak levels of effectiveness.

Such thoughts had become common place in the forefront of my mind, but as usual I pushed them back as quickly as they attempted to get the jump on me. I knew I needed to sleep, just for a while in order to get come kind of regular flow of energy back into my body and mind if Ii was ever to enjoy a day again without feeling as though everything was heavy and lacking in anything bright enough to make me smile. If only I had such a chance.

From behind and within the hut which now stood in the full light of the risen sun, I could hear the sound of my communicator beeping loudly with an incoming message I knew instantly was coming from Aryn.

It had been two weeks since the last job, so I was not surprised to hear the older woman's voice greet me and confirm her presence on the other end of the line with an unusual tone to her usually upbeat voice.

"Need you back at the base, _Tails_." She spoke quickly, again, not like she normally would, "Something for you to sink those sharp teeth of yours into… client asked for you **personally**…"

* * *

I had been as quick as I could to wash off the sweat and grime from my training before dressing into my battledress and strapping on my armour as a multitude of thoughts rushed through my head at a pace which didn't allow me to properly grasp at any of them before they slipped away back into nothingness.

It was raining by the time I'd reached the town and made my way into the small base we as a group used to plan our jobs and communicate with anyone in or outside of the organisation who wanted to hire us to undertake a personal break-in or something of the like.

It was rare, no; it was really never that any client would ask for any one of us singularly, simply because no one was supposed to know who we were. To say I had been shocked when Aryn told of how I was asked for by name would have been an understatement, especially since I had only been with the group for less than a month and wore a mask on each mission so as to disguise myself and my unique disposition as a Togruta in a galaxy that had never seen one of my kind.

Inside the building which had once been a Nova Corps office, the few Krylorian's that call the base home due to a lack of anywhere else to go greet me with friendly nods or waves as I make my way toward the back where I know Aryn will be waiting to brief me on what was going on.

The chrono on the wall tells me it's less than two hours until noon, but already the smell of cooking from the makeshift kitchen inside the west wing of the building fills my nostrils with scents of meats and vegetables which will be handed out to the remnants of the town's citizens at noon as it was every day, one of the smaller covers the group used as a distraction, but still something we had always worked hard to provide for the staving Krylorians who had come to depend on the daily three provided meals in order to survive.

It wasn't an easy environment to find a smile, but we were encouraged to still try and boost people's spirits even a little if it meant they held on to whatever hope they had of things getting better. I'd personally made an extra effort to reach out to the children of the town, especially the orphans, of which there are far too many.

Aryn greeted me with a soft smile as I entered the briefing room and shut the door behind me. She was dressed in a pair of black leggings tucked into knee high white boots. A similarly white form hugging top completed her outfit, while her long brownish-red hair was tied up in a ponytail and a single fusion pistol sat in the holster that hung from her black leather belt.

"You took tired, Tails. Still not sleeping well?"

My lekku blushed a shade of dark grey from their usually bright blue as the woman wrapped me in a hug and then held me at arm's length to lock her green eyes with my own. Aryn had been a lot better at hiding her own fatigue than I was, but standing this close it was hard not to notice the small, darkened lines that had been carefully concealed behind a thin layer of pink eye shadow which almost matched the colour of her reddish skin.

I had learned from others that Aryn had lost her husband to-be after the Kree bombardment led by a fanatic called 'Ronan the Accuser'. The woman had never liked talking about it simply because she was afraid, but I had made an effort to try and comfort her when I could, even if it only meant giving her a shoulder to cry on away from the eyes of those who looked up to her as the natural leader she was.

"I'm fine, Aryn. Really. Just still not used to the air around here I guess."

She smiled again and patted me on the shoulder, though I could tell that she had seen right through my lie like she always did when I tried to take the focus off myself or turn it around to make it seem like I was as "fine" as I claimed to be. I was always thankful that she never followed up with more questions.

"We got a call from Xandar about an hour ago from some hood asking for "Ahsoka Tano" to take on some kind of special job. I tried to deny I knew your name, but he only shuck my attempts off and demanded you head for the capital to meet him at some bar called the _Content Damsel _in the high district before he cut himself off. I'd usually tell one of my people to ignore something like this, but if his offered price is for real, well…"

Aryn stopped mid-sentence.

"…You don't have to say anything yet, Tails. I won't order you to meet a contact like this, but the amount of Units he said he was willing to pay was a little too high to ignore."

Biting my lower lip lightly, I took another step forward to stand right next to Aryn and look down at the data she had received from this shady client. I gasped half shocked half out of amusement as I spotted the price, instantly thinking it couldn't possibly be real until I read the rest of the request and whatever doubt I had were quickly challenged by the last few words that ended at the bottom of the screen.

_High risk; Job will either end in certain death, or guaranteed riches._

I could feel Aryn's eyes on me even as I read the same line over and over again in an effort to fully understand what I was getting myself into. The report provided spoke of a restricted zone somewhere outside Nova controlled space, while any descriptions of the prize were lacking to a simple _need-to-know _end to the sentence in which the client had listed the requirements needed to undertake the task.

"He didn't say how he knew me? How he figured I would fit all of these requirements?" I ask, never taking my eyes of the list in front of me.

"He didn't even tell me how he found out how to contact us, only that he was representing a powerful figure that would make sure Krylor would never want again… there wasn't anything in his voice that told me he was attempting to lie. That's why I called you; I think this guy is for real."

Turning my head to see Aryn staring back at me, I could see the small, fragile glint of hope which had been a common sight in many of the town's citizens, but never in her.

"Do we have a ship to take me to Xandar?" I ask with a confident smirk, something I can't recall doing since my last mission as a Jedi when I had saved my masters life as his star fighter fell out of the sky.

"Ahsoka… I need to know you're sure about this before I send you out on your own." Aryn's stare turned to one of steely caution signed off by her using my real name instead of the nickname she had given me the night we first met.

"You're just as important as anyone else here and I don't want to put you in danger. At least take some time to think it over."

I shuck my head, "I am sure, Aryn. This is a huge opportunity for us and Krylor as a whole. I won't let it slip through our grip when **I **have the chance to pay you back for all you've done for me while also saving the rest of the planet at the same time… You don't need to worry; I know I can do this!"

She smiled brightly and once again wrapped me in a tight embrace. "You're a lot braver than I ever will be…" She sighed, "The contact said he'd send a ship to pick you up as soon as we send confirmation… it'll be waiting for you five hours after the message is sent. Five clicks to the west, next to the lake."

Returning her embrace with that of my own, I dig my nose into Aryn's shoulder and welcome the warmth before she breaks us apart once more while holding onto my shoulders in a show of strength and support.

"Eyes open, Tails…" she says with a wink.

"Walk with the shadows, commander…" I reply with a nod of my own.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favourited the first chapter. Your support has been fantastic and I hope this chapter was up to scratch.

Thank you all once again for reading and I will catch you guys next time. Cheers!


	3. The Mad God's Messenger

**Ahsoka Tano**

**Guardian of the Galaxy**

**Chapter 2**

**The Mad God's Messenger**

* * *

Xandar's spaceport was a hive of activity. The capital planet of the Nova Empire was a thriving metropolis with peoples of all walks of life living and working to better themselves and their peers in the eyes of the galaxy, but it was difficult for me to see why upon witnessing the beauty of this imperial centre during my ship's decent through the bright and scattered clouds.

It was early evening by the time I'd been cleared to leave Nova's offices. The moment I'd walked down the loading ramp onto the landing pad they were on me, eyes wide with amazement as the port-guards spied the first Togruta they'd ever seen and insisted on degrading me as much as possible before allowing me into their city with a cold welcome and a host of warnings.

The cool, early evening breeze hit me softly as I walked out into the busy streets and took in the sights and sounds of the city around me. A perfect balance of nature and technology was what struck me first; every building, road and path was bordered or lined with grassy patches, wide open parks or hosts of tall, green trees which added a fresh, comforting scent to the air.

A quick glance at my wrist chrono gave me a sudden sense of urgency. The contact I was supposed to meet had left details on my borrowed ship's computer, telling me I had until the twin suns above disappeared behind the far off mountains to make it to the meeting point, the bar or club known as the _Content Damsel_.

Following the directions on my datapad led me through a maze of back-alleys and smaller streets until the establishment appeared in a flash of bright lights as a leisure district opened up before my feet. Like most of the city I'd seen, this area was clean and seemed to cater to a higher class of people than anything similar I would have once seen on another capital planet like Coruscant. People here were dressed in fancy, colourful outfits, striking suits and pretty gowns and dresses unlike any I'd ever seen before.

Pulling the hem of my robe's hood down over my face, I slowly made my way through the crowd and toward the entrance to the quiet looking bar. A single bouncer stood guard at the large double door, a human, though he was a lot taller and muscular than the many others that passed me by. On the datapad, the words _ask for Sonaht _flashed up as if the contact was aware I was just outside our meeting place, a slightly unnerving thought as I figured I hadn't and couldn't have been followed after so many twists and turns along the way.

Steeling myself and storing the small screen safely into the satchel at my side, I approached the giant man with my head lowered and my hands clasped lightly atop the diamond shaped cut-outs of my leggings, taking on the guise of a shy, harmless little girl, a role I'd all but perfected after a lot of practice in this line of work when some situations called for the distraction or sabotage of a potential mark.

"I would ask you for ID, but I doubt someone as young as you even has one that's legitimate…" The bouncer's first words weren't much of a greeting as his eyes fell upon me. His voice was rough and matched his stern posture perfectly. To my surprise and slight dismay, his tone almost matched that of a high ranking clone giving orders to his troops, a clone like Rex, or Cody or any of those brave souls I'd fought, cried and bled beside in the past. The thought, the memory, almost brought tears to my eyes, but a deep breath with a slow exhale steadied my senses and expelled any worry I had that this man would stop me from advancing on to my objective, after all, I did have a more straight forward way of getting by this sentry which I didn't normally possess on past occasions.

"I'm here to meet a friend named… Sonaht…" my own voice took on a shake and a slightly higher pitch to add to the act, but it wasn't needed, not when the bouncer immediately stiffened upon hearing the name and moved aside as the doors swung open to allow me access into the bar.

All at once the giant seemed to shrink down to a small, frightened child who had done something wrong under the eyes of their parents. His eyes went wide, his green pupils shining in the light of the flashes around us and his fear as obvious as the darkening day, as the suns neared the end of their fall and plunged this side of the planet into the gloom of night.

"Back room, booth seventeen…" the tall man said quickly and ushered me through the entrance with vigour.. _Very un-clone like… _"Knock three times and wait for an answer… We don't want any trouble here. Just go about your business and leave when it's done."

I nodded, not wanting to say anything that would draw the short conversation out for too much longer as the large, bulk of a man continued to look almost terrified of me specifically for speaking a name I had never heard before in all my time in this part of the universe. The look of fear in his eyes told me a story even at a quick glance. Whoever I was meant to meet was not a very nice person, that was for sure, but I couldn't allow myself to dwell on that, not when there was still a job left to do and a prize left to claim.

Walking past the man and through the large, double doors gave me access to the rather small, but very clean looking private bar. The room was only just illuminated enough for one person to see another from a couple of feet away, while glowing green lines on the dark-wooded ground created paths and outlines to where tables and purple coloured sofas sat in lowered sections in the floor. A high class place for a higher class of people, our kind of target on another given day.

Only a few of the even fewer patrons paid any notice to the one lone, cloaked girl as I gingerly made my way along one of the shining green paths toward the clearly marked _"apartment entrances" _at the very back of the room. Around me I could hear whispers, but little of the conversation one would expect in such a location at such a time as it now was. The streets outside had been full of life, with people moving from club to club with friends as they drank, ate, sang and danced there way into the night, but here, there was an air of nervousness, as if the very walls could hear anything over the slightest of noises and swallow up anyone stupid enough to speak any louder than the unspoken rule of volume.

Every step I took seemed to be a learning curve in keeping the deafening silence alive for as long as my now all too heavy boots would allow; but even as time seemed to slow down, so too did each stare I had to deal with from onlookers before I finally came face to face with a line of doors and quickly made my way towards the seventh one as instructed as nervousness was overcame with anticipation.

I knocked once, twice and three times before my hand dropped back to my side and a single bead of sweat ran down from the top of my forehead where my Akul-tooth headdress sat and met the tips of my markings. Every second dragged on into oblivion, every minute into another eternity, but I didn't move even a single muscle as I awaited an answer, even if suddenly deep down, I found myself wishing none would come.

The whispers behind me turned into shouts then; the silence slowing playing on my sound-sensitive montrals to the point I now knew almost every secret one business man at the table to my rear left had for his fellow confidant, while the barman tattled on about his plans for the night and the type of party I always tried my best to avoid.

My lekku twitched, my eyes slammed shut and a warning echoed through the Force of an incoming darkness; but I ignored it, pushing it aside in an effort to concentrate, and putting it down to my feelings being sent into overdrive in the moments leading up to the slow turn of the door handle underneath the reach of my grasp, the creaking of the steel as it pulled away from a lock inside the darkened wood and the soft slide against the carpeted floor within, as the barrier opened up into an entrance and once again, my senses focused on whoever… whatever, was standing beyond the threshold of the apartment before me.

"Welcome, Ahsoka Tano, I am pleased that you have come…"

The room was as black as a clouded night sky, but nothing compared to the ever darkening intent and loathing that was all too evident in this hidden figure's voice and signature within the Force. He stood before me robbed in silk and masked behind a cage of steel which covered most of his lower jaw. His eyes were obscured underneath a heavy, midnight blue veil of cloth; but even without seeing them, I could feel his gaze fixed upon me like an ominous sign of what was yet to come, as sign which maybe, I was foolish to ignore.

"How do you know who I am?" The question leaves the tip of my tongue before I can think to stop it. In truth, not knowing how someone had been able to discover me after going to every length to hide my identity from any and all perceptions had been drilling a hole in my thought-pool from the moment Aryn had told me I had been asked for by name.

My mission mask had covered my face entirely out in the field, while the helmet built around it obscured my lekku and montrals to the point their outlines would go almost totally unnoticed by anyone who didn't already know what they were, and as far as I knew, no one in this galaxy did until now; though then again, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised upon learning that this man and whoever he was representing seemed to know an awful lot more than any other common patron our group tended to deal with.

"My master knows much and sees so much more… He has been watching you since the moment your ship entered his domain, learning about you, observing your skill in battle and as a thief. He is impressed… enough to send me here to offer you a chance, a chance to undertake a task most important to him, and in exchange, he will bathe Krylor in riches and good fortune enough to restore the planet to its former self, while also letting it grow into something more… a point of power in the galaxy which the Nova Corps will not soon forget again…"

The man, the… strange creature's tone was filled with evident grandeur and utmost belief in every word he spoke. It wasn't the first time a contact, rare as they were in our line of work, had been even darkly charismatic and sure of themselves when offering us a sum in order to take something from a target, but in this case, it was a though I was being offered something far too good to be true.

A slight disturbance in the Force, the first I'd felt in weeks, came and went in a flash before I realised my eyes were closed and my face looked deftly toward the soft, purple carpeted ground under my feet. This job was not just about saving Krylor anymore, there was something else being set in motion here beyond that of the simple tracking down and taking of an item. No, the Force was sending my warnings for a reason and I would need to investigate them myself in order to fully understand who or what this man was, as well as who he worked for and what he wanted me to steal.

"If the reward is so high…" I began with a flat tone, taking on the role of a greedy bounty hunter I'd learned from my early years as a Padawan when such beings ran riot across the galaxy, "…Then the risk must be just as lofty. How do you know a simple thief like me can handle something of this much importance?"

The man gave a dark chuckle as I finished, his long robes fluttering as he spun to face himself away from me and stare at the barely visible door at the back of the claustrophobic room. It was at that moment I got a look at his hands, each one bearing six fingers instead of five and his skin flashing in the think sliver of light from the single window above, revealing a pale, bloodless hue which made me shiver even as the heat inside this place added a clear sheen of sweat to my forehead and made me struggle not to throw my own robe off, if only for a moment of cooling, fresh air.

"As I said, girl. My Master knows more about you than you may think to understand… and more still about what you do and who you are..."

"Then make me understand." I spat back instantly, feeling it worth the attempt to act strong in place of my usual job-specific reserved character when in settings such as this.

"Do not be insolent with me, child… You are but an insect in my master's eyes. A skilled insect at that, but an insect nonetheless." He replied forcefully, I must have touched a nerve, "All you need to understand is where I am to send you and what you are to do once you arrive there. After all is said and done, we will speak more about your payment, about your... reward…"

His last words came out with a short bout of laughter, but it was only a snicker under his breath compared to the evil chuckles of a mad man which I was sure he was well capable of producing if prompted. Still, to say I felt uncomfortable would have been an understatement and a lie all at once. It was time to quicken this meeting and end it before my sanity tipped over the cliff upon which it only just stood.

"Have it your way then..." I said with a pout and folded my arms in a signal of slight disobedience, "So where are you sending me? And what is it I'm meant to be stealing…?"

"That…" the bleak figure of the man's hood flicked back to lock obscured, black eyes with my own, "…is for my Master to know. All **you **need to know for now, girl, is that it sits somewhere deep within the forbidden zone of a long forgotten planet on the edge of Nova controlled space. The ship we provided that brought you here will transport you to the planet's surface and then your return await in orbit when the item is in hand, or…" he smiled a sharp, toothy grin, "…or until you die. In which case it will return to me and I will be forced to look for someone else to take over where your corpse left off and retrieve the item successfully with whatever information we learn from you own attempt."

My lekku twitched and vibrated at those final words. _Take over where your corpse left off_, so **there** was the danger behind the promise of untold riches and prosperity. As a Jedi, no matter how horrible the situation, I probably would have turned the chance down even if it meant people continued to suffer. It was the way of the Order, the way of the peacekeepers to follow the law and help in only the most justly of ways we could without falling to the temptation of outside interference from sources like this man and his whoever his master was were. But I was not a Jedi, not anymore.

"I'll leave right away. The sooner this is done, the better…"

The man smiled again, if you could call it a smile at all. He then turned to open the door to the back of the room and made an exit only to re-enter a few seconds later holding a medium sized silvery metal box which he placed atop a small, round table in the centre of the floor and opened it to reveal a collection of different devices sitting inside.

"Here, you have a map of the facility as far we know it. A key card, which will open the doors along the way to the item's possible locations and an ear communicator which I will use to contact you when the need arises. Finally… this decrypted currency converter will activate only once you have completed your mission. Then and only then will we transfer the agreed fee to your… _organisation's_ sub-accounts. Now, off with you, girl, and remember… if you die, no one will come for you, no one will know… succeed, or be succeeded… **we **shall be watching."

Scowling perhaps a little too hard against the man's words, I snatched the box from the small table and shoved it into my satchel alongside my data pad for the trip back to the space port, "I'll do my best…" my words come out in a tone matching the look I throw at the cloaked nuisance, but as has come in reply all of my little, snippy comments, he merely smiled, chuckled and looked at me underneath the line of cloth with a mocking gaze and a sinister, warning voice.

"See to it that you do, child… see do it that you do…"

* * *

A deep sense of danger strengthened by a simple need to run carried me back to the borrowed ship at the Nova space-port as fast as my feet would carry me. The entire meeting with the mysterious man inside the dark quarters of that bar had left a pit in my stomach large enough that I was sure I could fit a small moon into the chasm if the Force itself hadn't occupied the space with warnings and sensations while driving me towards a goal I could not see and a point in the future I did not yet know.

I cantered myself as best I could as I rushed through the gates toward the landing pad my ship sat upon awaiting my return. I only just noticed the boarding ramp was already lowered to allow my access as a course of shouts and alarms echoed behind me, the voices of the Nova security officers who now came at me with weapons in hand after I'd ignored their orders to halt at the entrance and pushed through them with every inch of strength I could summon. I didn't care then and I don't care now.

Seconds passed by as quickly as a shooting star travels through the abyss which awaited above before I threw myself into one of the seats in the cockpit and immediately punched in the commands needed to bring the ion engines to life and lift the ship back into the clouds; back into the freedom of open space.

In the time I'd taken to make my escape, I figured whatever chase Nova were willing to give would end before it even had the chance to begin. I was too fast now, too set on the destination **they **would not know about, far off in the outer reaches of the Empire on the planet they had long forgotten.

A long, ragged breath left my lungs in a moment of triumph and relief, but I was still far away from my destination and the task that awaited me on the ground once I got there. I thought to contact Aryn then, but decided against it in the end so as not to worry her or incite an order to return to Krylor to pick up support, or worse, be put off undertaking the job because it was too dangerous for a single person, a single thief, to complete without backup.

I tried to make an effort to relax myself for the remainder of the journey, to focus on something else and sink into any good memories and thoughts I could find as my ship flew silently though the stars. I tried, but I knew almost as instantly as it happened that I was doomed to remain wide eyed and alert to the small space around me for a danger that did and yet didn't exist. I could feel their eyes, their gaze fixed upon me; and it was only then that I realised that that same line of sight had been locked on me from the moment I crashed on Krylor two months ago, stalking me like a predator stalks its prey.

My hands were shaking, even as I struggled to take a steady breath while I could hear **his** voicespeaking to me directly from the past; his dark promise haunting me to the point I was unable to shake it off or dwell on anything other than it and the hope that soon, very soon, my journey to this unknown place would come to an end and the voice and gaze of the mysterious, monstrous man would cease to torture me again.

"…_If you die, no one will come for you; no one will know… succeed, or be succeeded… __**we**__ shall be watching…"_

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Disney, Marvel and Lucasfilm Limited own all Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy characters and concepts. I do not own the rights to any of the characters, locations or anything to do with either franchise. Any Original Characters and/or locations however are my own.

**Author's Notes: **Thanks for reading guys and a huge sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up, I'll do my best to have the next one ready as soon as I can and thank you all for the reviews, follows and favourites. It means a lot to me and I appreciate them more than you know. Thanks again and I will catch you all next time. Cheers!


	4. The Darkness and the Light

**Ahsoka Tano**

**Guardian of the Galaxy**

**Chapter 3**

**The Darkness and the Light**

* * *

In the outer regions of the Nova Empire, the suns' light could not reach the unrelenting blackness of the ever present oblivion, nor anything that lay within its perilous grasp and the viewport of my ship, planets, moons and stars passed by in a flash of motion until eventually all there was left before and around me was emptiness, cold and a feeling of loneliness that I as a Togruta could not bear to acknowledge if anything to avoid going crazy within the harrowing depths of my own fragile mind.

I stared at the vessel's navi-comp for what must have been hours, days or even weeks, unblinking, unable to sleep and terrified that if I did doze off, the mysterious agent of whoever had tasked me with this mission to edges of the galaxy would reappear in my nightmares and haunt me with his shrill and terrible voice.

"Eyes open, Ahsoka… Always keep… eyes… open…"

The wariness in my own tone doesn't surprise me as much as it perhaps should, but through heavy eyes I can see first-hand in my own reflection that evading the warmth of the bunk behind me is slowly, painfully taking its toll on both my body and my mind… _I can't do this anymore… I need to… to rest…_

My legs wobble and ache under the strain of standing up, the cracks and creaks of my stiff bones echo off the very walls in the silence and in doing so I find myself pressing my hands lightly against my sound and touch sensitive montrals for reprieve, a luxury I begin to fear I may not have for very much longer.

Removing the heavy armour from my boots and shoulders was the beginning of the ordeal. The clank of the metal against the flood made my head throb once more and ring for several awful seconds until I was finally able to unclench my teeth and get to work on the rest of my clothing, leaving me with only the wrappings around my chest and the leggings I didn't want to even attempt to take off in fear I would only trip on them and end up falling out of consciousness on the hard, cold floor.

Sitting on the edge of the bedding to try and steady myself for a moment has little effect, but the effort of lifting and swinging my legs onto the softness of the mattress is enough to snap me back to some kind of reality at least for a long second, before I pull the welcome warmth of the blanked over my body and curl up as best I can against whatever dreams I may or may not have to live through before the morning comes…

_Within the confines of my subconscious, I begin to see the outlines of villages and the silhouettes of people, animals and machines alike as they move through broken streets and ruined wooden shelters surrounded by tall trees and a familiar red and white coloured grass._

_I begin to hear voices then, mechanical shrieks and murmurs from the skinny, walking robots that lead rows of chained people through the destruction. Droids of the Trade Federation, I realise, while the people they escort reveal themselves to be those of my own, Togruta, being horded and marched through the broken lands of my own home planet… Shili…_

_Blaster fire echoes in the distance, the sight and sound of lightsabers, green, yellow and blue enter my vision from an unseen side and begin slicing through the surprised machines like a hot knife cuts through butter. Shouts and cheers erupt from the on watching Togruta as they too join the fight, breaking away from their restraints and grapping spears tipped with merciless steel to destroy and dismantle their oppressors with the help of the Jedi pair who encourage and thank them openly for their support._

_Before long, the droids are decimated and defeated leaving none but the innocent and the righteous standing tall and it is then that I see the faces of the Jedi, as well as those they protect. I see myself standing with a smile, with Anakin at my side looking down at me proudly as another mission ends in success and my people, no, my family and tribe are set free and saved by one of their own and the Hero Without Fear._

_Even as I sleep, I can feel the oncoming rush of tears welling up as they begin running down my cheeks. My heart begins to beat faster too, adding to the pressure that has already built up in my chest as guilt, regret and sorrow plague my very soul and threaten to overwhelm me if I dare continue this vision any longer… if only I had a choice in the matter._

_As Anakin pats my shoulder and nods toward an approaching Togruta couple, my anxiety bursts like a long abandoned dam. There, before my very eyes stand my mother and father both beaming with pride as they embrace their daughter and tell her how much they have missed her since the Jedi Master Plo Koon took her away from them so many moons ago._

_They tell me that they are proud that I carry on the Tano name and that of my culture as I place a hand atop the middle tooth of the headdress I earned after my rite of passage. 'Mighty Huntress', my father speaks in Togruti and all of a sudden the pain and anguish is washed away as I realise the significance of the title and that of the people who have bestowed it upon me._

_In reality I realise, I will never see them again like I am seeing them now in my dreams, but I can still do them proud in serving a cause I know with all my heart they would approve of. I must continue to fight because that is what I am doomed to do for the rest of my life, but I will not fight for myself, I will fight for the weak and the helpless, I will fight for my new family on Krylor and give them back the lives that they have lost and deserve more than anyone else in the galaxy. I will fight for Aryn, for our group and anyone else willing to stand against war and its aftermath so long as there is still something left to live for, and then, when the day comes that I can lay down my blade and fight no more, I will know I have made my family and my master truly proud to call me their daughter, their Padawan and their friend, for a thousand saved souls is worth the sacrifice… of the one soul that is cursed to forever roam. Lost on a sea of shadows and uncertainty…_

The deafening sound of the ship's arrival alarm made me half jump out of my skin. My eyes snapped open as I lifted myself up to a sitting position and took in long, broken breaths in an attempt to steady myself and bring my focus back to reality after the vivid dream-like visions I had experienced in the depths of the much needed slumber.

A quick look at the chrono on the wall revealed I had fallen out of consciousness for a whole two and a half days while my vessel flew through space on the automated pilot. The realisation of the time I had been out was startling, but even as the surprise sunk into my mind; I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as my body felt more fresh and alive than it had for the entire length of time I had been in this new galaxy.

Straightening and stretching my legs out over the bunk, I test my feet on the cold floor before adding my entire weight to them in order to make sure the new sense of energetic enthusiasm wasn't yet another illusion conjured up in my head and again, I am left feeling fully relieved.

With a small smile I make my way back into the cockpit and take a seat before the controls both to turn the now annoying alarm off and try to get an exact readout on my bearings before throwing myself into the task of landing the ship on the planet before me and beginning the mission that will decide not only my future, but that of Krylor as well.

The black orb of the unknown world spins slowly in front of me, its skies marked with flashes of red lightning and thick; dark clouds which spill something that I struggle to call rain down upon the planet's lifeless surface where nothing but silence seems to exist.

The galactic map on the navi comp reveals my location to be well outside normal space, on the edges of the Nova Empire where nothing is supposed to be and no one is supposed to thread. This far outside of the knowing pull of life that lies behind me in the centre of the galaxy, I feel the sudden emptiness of solitude once again crawling its way into the only slightly sated anxiety that sits upon my heart, threatening to strike should I make a wrong move and slow me down before I can even get started, but I steel myself against that thought; _not while there's still a job to do…_

"There is no emotion… there is peace…"

My ship breaks through the long-forgotten planet's atmosphere with a series of shakes and whines through ravaging turbulence. From above, the black expanse of the surface is even more personified, revealing seas that look to consist of oil rather than water, while darkened wastelands make clear the fact that nothing but the smallest hints of life thrive in the eternal night. _Good_, I think silently to myself, _means there won't be anyone to stand in my way or make this any more difficult than it has to be._

A bright red circle on my navi-comp begins to blink and beep, bringing my attention back to the brightened screen as the abandoned Nova facility comes into scanner range as quickly as my craft enters the final stages of its landing procedure, gliding through the seemingly never ending storm, while droplets of blackened rain water bounce off the view screen and slide backwards into the skies beyond.

Flashes of memory come and go with every meter my ship descends. The constantly falling rain reminding me of one of the few times I had visited the birthplace of the clone army on Kamino with my master, or to visit the Jedi Master stationed there to overlook the development and training of the Republic's infinite legion of troops, a fellow Togruta and a friend in Shaak Ti.

Even for all of the calm and serenity she seemed to exude in copious amounts, I never quite understood Master Ti as well as I would have liked to. She had always been friendly and supportive of me whenever we did meet face to face, but her mind was always so guarded, I sometimes wondered if she too would cry herself to sleep when no one was around to hear or see.

As Togruta, our very nature calls us into the wild to run, to hunt and to survive. In our language, in Togruti, our names hold significance because they tell their own story about who the person is and who they are destined to be. Names are important in that way, we remember them, we shape them and we discover their meaning as much as we discover ourselves before they're taken away from us by an evil we dare not speak of.

In some ways, I think of myself in much the same way as I remember Master Ti. We **were **Jedi once, but war and conflict tore our spirits apart. She too had been trapped inside a steel cage and forced to watch over a source of destruction and death, but she would never be allowed to run with them even as I was, to feel the thrill of battle in ways I shouldn't have and to embrace our inborn nature like our people were free to do.

Closing my eyes against the bleak sight before me, I begin to wonder what Shaak Ti would think of me now. Would she be angry or disappointed in me for leaving the Jedi Order? Would she understand why I did it? Why I had to do it? What would she say if she knew I'd turned to a life of crime for the greater good of an entire planet? Somehow, I doubt that last one would sit well with her, or any Jedi for that matter, even if the cause was just and my reasons true.

Had our roles been reversed, had Shili been in danger like Krylor was, would the Jedi, the Republic, have intervened to save my people like I wanted to save the Krylorians from certain famine or decay? In my mind, the answer rings clear but in my heart, I feel I know the terrible truth despite not wanting to and that proves to be the most terrifying thing of all. That a world can be abandoned to starve while others flourish and pay no heed. That is not the galaxy I once fought to save and neither will it be for this new frontier. I fight because that is what I am good at, I fight because I can fight, I fight… because no one else will.

"_Eyes open, walk with the shadows…"_

The ships landing gear touches down on the planet's surface with an audible _thud _before the boarding ramp descends and the sound of the falling, heavy rain surrounds and echoes though my montrals like hail off a glass window.

Throwing on my boots, battledress and shoulder armour, as well a worn winter parka Aryn had given me, I make my way to the back of the ship with the rest of my equipment and mask tucked safely away in my satchel as I steel myself to face the elements outside and the mission that stands before me.

Surprisingly, the air outside the ship was warm and heavy despite the storm like conditions. The ground beneath my feet was warm too, burning in fact, to the point that my boots begin to heat up as fast as the rest of my body under the parka's thick fabric, leaving me sweating and breathing profusely for air with each step I take toward the towering fence that closes the facility within from outsiders and acts as the first obstacle of what I am sure are to be many more that await me deeper into the compound's depths.

Fatigue settles over me before I have the chance to fight it, each step carries the weight of a small moon and every breath intake seems to take an age between inhaling and exhaling to the point my eyes begin to dim and my vision becomes clouded.

The rocks I step on crack and shatter under my light weight, their black husks spilling out a powder that stinks of fire and ash. For not the complex in front of me, I would begin to wonder if this planet was one massive orb of molten rock, ever burning and smouldering as it reforms itself countless times over the course of hours or days.

The cloud over my thoughts thickens some, collapsing itself around better judgment and driving me forward into nothing. _No… I need to turn back…_

Be it my own will or the will of the Force that drives me, I find myself turned to face my ship once again as a desperate effort to return to the controlled, cool environment of its inner sanctum carries my weighted legs when strength alone cannot.

Thrusters flair to life before I can reach the boarding ramp, the sound of the rocks beneath the landing gear cracking and sending a storm of dust into the air startles me back to reality as all at once the ship and my hope of respite rise into the sky and disappear into the rain-soaked clouds without so much as a warning or explanation of departure. Of course, _they _would be watching. _They _would not allow me to turn back.

Cursing the unknown name of dark one from Xandar, I reach into my satchel and pull out and on the mask Aryn had had made for me to conceal my appearance as a Togruta as well as act as a valuable mission tool.

A sigh escapes my lips as I welcome the clarity of cool, filtered air and a host of options at which I can choose how I perceive the world around me simply by scrolling through the visor options and selecting anything that will continue to help me make it further than the few blind paces I had only been able to achieve on my previous excursion.

It still takes a lot longer than it should have to reach the base of the tall boundary fence, the sheer weight of the heat and building fatigue slowing my paces to almost a crawl before I came to a stop before the obstacle and take a moment to gather my strength for what I already knew will be a difficult Force augmented leap from my current position to the one on the other side of the rust-skinned, steel giant.

A quick scan of the fence and the area beyond reveals little in the ways of security systems. No trip-mines, laser wires or surveillance cameras show up on my visor's interface, but given how old this place looks, I know better than to take any chances before reaching my ultimate objective, hopefully without having to deal with any wailing alarms or worse still, this galaxy's ruthless version of a heavily armed and armoured defender droid.

Focusing my energies in and around my legs, I begin to fall into the power of the Force to propel me up into the air before pushing that same energy back to the ground on the other side to cushion my landing and ensure my leap is as quick and silent as the fall of a feather on a light, evening breeze.

My eyes snap open just as my feet leave the ground and I throw myself into a forward, mid-air roll at the apex of my jump. To a regular onlooker's eyes, my actions would have passed in a mere blink but through my own sight, time and space seemed to slow to the point each particle of dust in the air was as clear to me as the massive building before me, passing by and crashing into my form as I ended my acrobatic flip and aimed the full extent of the Force's power down toward the ground for me to land on, crouched, with one hand outstretched and my head facing the ground as the flow of time returned to normal and the full extent of my exertions made its presence known.

Steadying myself and standing up straight with a stretch of my arms, I allow the Force to once again surround and fill me with its energy in an effort to stave off the weariness that hangs on my shoulders like a heavy boulder on a strained metal chain.

Before long, my heated legs carry me to the towering entrance to the facility's main building and the wall mounted control panel which takes longer than I would like to power up so that I can activate the door's locks and open the way inside.

A small slicer spike, a gift from Anakin in our early days as Master and Padawan, proves to work just as well on the technology here as it would have done back in my home galaxy. That one thought makes me smile, he would have been proud to see I was just as sufficient with the tool now as I had been when he'd taught me to use it years earlier, and maybe even more so knowing I decided to disobey the dark one's orders to use the key card to make my way into the abandoned base, or the map provided, for the Force would be my guide.

The door creaks and groans loudly as metal scrapes against metal. Gears off in the near distance grind and turn too, creating a symphony of industrial mechanisms I had come to know quite well from my time in the Jedi Order and the many Separatist strongholds and factories I'd invaded, captured or destroyed while fighting in the never ending Clone Wars.

Lights flickered in and out of existence on the ceiling above as power gradually returned to give life to the many machines, computers and conveyer belts that littered the floor before my eyes. It seemed that this place was nothing more than another production site, a place where weapons, artillery or other military equipment was built and packaged to be shipped off to some battlefield or base far away from its well hidden source.

_Clever_ I think quietly to myself, _No one would suspect Nova of having a place like this so far away from their core planets. Nothing to see, nothing to attack. The perfect risk free operation…_

The premise of the idea, of the execution of Nava's plans was impressive, something both the Republic and Separatists would appreciate had one of their own come up with it, but unlike either side contending the Clone Wars and at this level, Nova were being so secret, so careful, that they were willing to leave the facility to hide away on the furthest reaches of their known space to keep it out of reach of the Kree, something that made them different… something that made them dangerous.

The still scanning interface of my mask draws my attention to the visor's intel with a series of beeps and flashes of data as all at once the plant's security systems flare to life alongside anything else still able to draw on the newly restored flow of electricity. No cameras to speak of, but a host of normally invisible laser trip-wires appear in their hundreds as thin red beams on the screen before me, throwing up yet another obstacle course for me to run through, though unlike the tall fence, at least inside the building, the air was a lot cooler and my limbs not as heavy from the weight of the super-heated air out in the wastelands left behind me.

Cautiously and with a keen eye for anything out of the ordinary, I begin to make my way into the bowls of the massive building. High above me, golden star shaped fighter craft sit on small landing pads connected to the plain, grey walls with ladders and cargo lifts connecting one to another as they rise into three organised rows, one on top of the other and circled the room in a ring of unused air superiority.

Much like the heights of the walls, the ground floor didn't fail to disappoint when offering a host of war machines. From gargantuan artillery vehicles, to a battalion's worth of threaded tanks half hidden under the camouflaged sheets they would have at one time used out in the field but now only served to slow the amount of dust that could gather atop their thick armoured shells.

Aside from the organised and abandoned weaponry, the only other items on the floor to speak of were a number of cranes, some still clinging on to missiles or boxes, and stacked crates in corners or lined up in front of or between the tanks and mobile units. The only thing to connect everything were the beams sprouting out from the security modules mounted inside the walls, and on those, my eyes and mind focused on fully, knowing that even if the wailing alarms here would not attract any kind of attention, the signal emitters that were easily seen dotted throughout the ceiling and connected to the roof would surly let the Nova Corps know of an intruder snooping around in **one **of their now **known** forbidden zones.

Steadily, my slow stride turns into a jog, to a run, until finally I come within mere inches of the first of the hundreds of laser trip-wires and leap over it into roll. Another two go over me before I'm forced to twist, flip and spin through a web of red lasers while simultaneously landing in a handstand and slowing my front faced fall so my body arches over the invisible line, making a grunt escape from between the clenched teeth of my snarling lips as pressure is placed on my still healing ribs.

Standing like a crab droid, I can't help but let out a little laugh at how silly I must look, would look, to anyone who could see me in this position. The joyful giggle does add to the slight sting irradiating from my sternum, but I don't pay it mush attention as I push my hands off the floor finally to stand upright once more and brush myself off in preparation for the next set of beams, a smile, though small, though fragile, continuing to linger all the while.

It didn't take much longer for me to reach the far side of the building where a single hanger sized door sat tightly sealed. My slicer spike made short work of it, but I wasn't prepared to see what lay on the other side when the massive sliding slabs of metal finally finished their scraping journeys to the opposite wall and disappeared inside the furrows which hid them until closed once again.

A cargo elevator, thirty meters in length and twenty meters wide struggled to life with a loud, mechanical groan. Behind it, a cavernous tunnel, built to accommodate the beastly machine and anything else that might had once sat upon it, descended into the depths and a darkness so bleak, even my keen natural gift of sight combined with my visor's specially designed sensors, couldn't even begin pierce the blackened wall to see what awaited beneath in an unknown I would soon need to know.

Reaching out with the Force, I couldn't pick up on any signs of danger or life in the dark below, but even as I boarded the elevator and activated the terminal at its side to make it move, I couldn't help but feel a sudden sense that someone, or something, was watching me.

The descent took more than an hour to complete, though it probably wouldn't have taken as long if I hadn't had to change elevator twice along the way and slice into the last one in order to restore and reroute power from the generators located high overhead which were even now still struggling to keep the electricity flow steady after years of lying dormant.

Darkness gave way to a chilling cold the deeper into the depths I descended, vapour poured free from my lungs with each breath I took and all at once the scene had shifted dramatically from the intense heat above and outside to the icy freeze of the hidden world below.

Silence ruled eternal here, a fact that became painfully clear the moment my feet left the halted elevator and took their first steps into a dome shaped chamber as large as a Trade Federation command ship, which in its centre, held a cube shaped structure so small and out of place, it looked almost too obvious to be obvious.

The vast expanse of this place was only just illuminated by small, blue lights which dotted the curving ceiling. Beside them, deactivated gun turrets equipped with laser guided target acquisition gear hung lifeless in their thousands, as yet untouched by the restored power, though for how long I dared not to question.

The chamber was clear of any security measures thus far, again no cameras, no tripwires and no droids stood ready to slow me as I carefully made my way into the core of the room to stand in front of the cube and examine it for any sign that it, as I suspected, was the target I had been searching for since touching down on this Force forsaken backwater excuse for a planet.

Placing a hand on the smooth, cool surface of the structure, I closed my eyes and attempted to reach out with the Force in an effort to detect what, if anything lay inside the perfectly constructed container. A yelp of surprise caused by a sudden sound from within halted me however, as my eyes snapped open to the sight before them and I bore witness to the inner shell of the cube as it begun to shatter into tiny pieces, all of which disappeared, to reveal a clear view of a single, empty pedestal in the very centre of a glass room.

_Empty..._

Annoyance creases my features as I slip off my mask and breathe a frustrated sigh while adding a frown at the realisation that this may not have been the place or object I was really supposed to find.

Long minutes pass by as I stare at the inside of the cube as if in a failing endeavour to learn what could or should have been placed atop the pedestal within. A strange scent hangs in the air, but I do my utmost to ignore it as my senses extend outward to see and feel everything and anything in and around this dome which would give me a better understanding as to what this place was and what it was supposed to hold that would drive someone to hire a band of thieves in order to track down and take it before someone else could.

Cursing myself for not gathering more information from the dark one on Xandar only adds to my frustration and building anger. I feel like screaming, like extending and increasing my power again to pull this place down around me and destroy it if only to find the item quicker.

The chill in the room grows colder, the scent more potent, but again, I ignore both as my mind begins to spin in a hurricane of frustration and hatred the likes of which I had never before experienced in my entire life as a Jedi.

By the time the sense of danger breaks through the settled clouds over my mind it's too late, the gas, the strange security measure which had begun venting into the camber from the moment I'd placed my hand on the cube had already taken a hold of my senses to the point the Force had mixed with its effects to create a dark and dangerous cocktail of illusion and emotion so strong and resistant, it blinds me to reality and sends me stumbling into a vision I would not even realise was conjured and false until it was too late to fight it.

Shadows danced and floated in the darkness. Hands, born out of the black mist grabbed a hold of my arms and legs, and breathing, so deep and tortuous in its inhale, so evil and ominous in its exhale, filled my montrals until my lekku threatened to curl up against the horrible the sound even as it closes in on me, even as stood before me.

"The Force is strong with you, young Ahsoka… But you are not a Jedi yet…"

Its voice is harsh and booming, like a ballad of dark promises that could only lead to pain, suffering and death if followed too far at its side.

All at once, I want to slam my eyes shut so I don't have to look up into those cold, black eyes. To have to witness the tall, monstrous figure of a man, no a machine, as it stands before me bathed in the dark side and activates its deadly, crimson lightsaber with the intent to only do me harm before striking the final blow.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

My screams are panicked and quick to the point I don't attempt to try and hide the fear in them. Struggling against the hands that hold me is just as futile, their grips tightening on my limbs with every move I make and the sound of the terrible breathing increasing with every step the shadow takes toward me, blade firmly in hand, readying to strike me down.

Its black visage came within inches of my own, its darkened, red eyes locking with my blue gaze as its rage, its anger, its fear and its hate came crashing down on me simply by being this close, simply by being in its… **his** presence.

Gritting my teeth, I try to force my head back and away from his piercing glare without avail. Beads of sweat roll down my forehead to coat my face and half blind my eyes when combining with the gathering storm of tears, and in that moment, I am not as strong as I wanted to build myself up to be, I am not the emotionless warrior of the light who didn't care about herself and only fought for the good of others, no, realisation dawned in the blinding light of a rising sun and as I stared blankly into its rays, for the first time since I left the Jedi Temple and my Master atop its steps, I was but a lost child and I was afraid.

"Fear ill suits you, my **former** apprentice…"

His voice alone forces me to face him, its sudden shift from mechanical and struggled, to clear, soft and so familiarly teasing that I almost snap myself out of the illusion then and there. If only I had been able to.

Just as suddenly as it appeared, the figure's lightsaber sizzles and hums into a clear, blue blade from the dark side crimson it had once been. The mask, once so threatening and neutrally hard, faded into a black cloud along with the rest of its black armour to reveal tanned Jedi robes and a face I never thought I would ever see again in even the wildest depths of my haunted dreams.

Shock pulls consciousness out of my weakened grasp before I have the chance to fight it. The arms that had gripped onto me weakened too, eventually dropping me to the cold, hard ground where I lay flat on my back, unable to move, unable to breath; unable to comprehend what was real and what was being forced into my sight by the gas as it continued to mix with the power and influence of the Force in ways I know its creators could never have known it would.

As slowly as my eyes began to dim, so too did he once again come to stand over me, to kneel down and cup my cheek with his gloved, mechanical hand in a gesture I would not understand. Was he trying to comfort me? Was he going to kill me? The darkness took me before either question could form on the tip of my tongue, yet still I manage to speak one word before the unwelcome slumber claimed me. One word, to answer his own.

Staring up into clouded blue eyes, my own shined brightly within them with a dangerous mix of hope, joy, doubt and eventually realisation as I spoke his name, knew his name, more than I even knew my own in that moment in time when I so yearned to hang on to for as long as I could in an effort to hang onto him, as well as myself.

"Sleep tight, Snips…"

His voice echoes in my thoughts….

"Anakin…"

…And finally, the tears begin to fall.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Thanks for reading guys.

At the beginning of this chapter, I wanted to really show how Ahsoka feels about herself and her life since ending up in this new galaxy and being left to continue to fight despite leaving one war behind. This story will really be about her finding a purpose that doesn't involve her laying down her life in order to save so many others, but allows her to still do that while feeling she has so much more to live for and strive towards before she does lay her sword down one last time.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and thank you once again to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed and favourited the story so far. Your support means so much to me and I hope I can repay you all by writing a story you all will like to continue reading.

But yeah, that's about it from me. Thank you all once again for reading and I will catch you guys next time. Cheers!


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